Mobile communication units (MCU's), such as cellular phones, personal data assistants (PDA's), and on-board Vehicle Communication Units (VCU's), used in conjunction with a Wide Area Network (WAN), such as a cellular telephone network or a satellite communication system, have made it possible for a person to send and receive voice communications, data transmissions, and FAX messages from virtually anywhere on earth. Such communication is initiated at the MCU when it is turned on, or by entering a phone number to be called, or in many cases, by pressing a preprogrammed button on the MCU or speaking a voice command causing the MCU to automatically complete the process of dialing the number to be called. A radio communication link is established between the MCU and a Wide Area Network (WAN), using a node of the WAN in the vicinity of the MCU.
In cellular telephone systems, a router is commonly referred to as a “cellular base station.” Once the radio communication link between the MCU and the cellular base station has been established, the base station then utilizes a combination of additional cellular stations, conventional telephone wire line networks, and possibly even satellite systems to connect the MCU to the number or data node (e.g. IP address) to be accessed.
Wireless communication services for MCU users, such as navigation and roadside assistance, have increased rapidly in recent years. Services offered are for either a motor vehicle in operation or a non-operational motor vehicle. Services offered for a motor vehicle in operation include navigation assistance, stolen vehicle tracking, remote diagnostics, and the like. Services offered for a non-operational motor vehicle include remote door-lock release, emergency services, remote horn and lights, and the like.
MCU service providers must make available a wireless communication service customer assistance center (or other such manually staffed service center) in order that an operator or customer assistant may complete the MCU requests. Recently, some MCU service providers have made access to MCU requests available to the customer via the Internet and the World Wide Web. This availability has allowed customers to modify the many different options available within the vehicle depending on vehicle equipment and the service-level the customer has purchased.
Conventional vehicles receive specific embedded logic at the time of manufacture, and as new model year vehicles become available with new service-levels older models likely will not be retrofitted due to cost factors. Unfortunately, this presents a number of negative issues for the manufacturer, such as, for example requiring future products to provide legacy support.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a method and system that would overcome these and other disadvantages.